Karen L. Margolis, MD, MPH
Senior Research Investigator

Dr. Margolis is an internal medicine physician and researcher. Throughout her career she has been drawn to topics that arose from unanswered questions in her practice. This has led Dr. Margolis to research a broad range of issues: safety and acceptability of flu shots, screening for breast and cervical cancer, preventing falls and fractures in older women, safety and effectiveness of postmenopausal hormone therapy, and treatments for diabetes. A central theme has been how best to prevent cardiovascular disease, especially through effective treatment of high blood pressure, across the age spectrum in both men and women. The COVID-19 pandemic led Dr. Margolis back to vaccine research, and she is especially proud to be collaborating with researchers across Minnesota to improve health outcomes related to this and other public health threats.

Education and training include:
University of Michigan (B.S. in Biology, 1979), Phi Beta Kappa
University of Michigan Medical School (M.D., 1983), Alpha Omega Alpha
University of Minnesota (M.P.H. in Epidemiology, 1992)

Affiliations and other offices held include:

• Staff physician, Department of Internal Medicine, HealthPartners Medical Group
• Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School
• Adjunct Professor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
• Executive Director of Research, HealthPartners Institute, 2017-2021

Research interests include:
Prevention of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and postmenopausal women’s health. Since March 2020, Dr. Margolis has led the HealthPartners site of the Minnesota Electronic Health Records Consortium, a statewide group of researchers, data scientists and analysts from 11 Minnesota health systems who have joined together to equitably improve health outcomes by combining our data and knowledge. In addition to leading her own research studies on hypertension, Dr. Margolis has been an investigator in many large multi-center, federally funded trials involving cardiovascular disease, diabetes and women’s health, including the Women’s Health Initiative, the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT), Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD), the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly trial (ASPREE), the Vitamin D and Type 2 Diabetes (D2d) study, and the Long-term Effectiveness of the Anti-obesity medication Phentermine (LEAP) trial. 

Current research activities and funding:
IHS-1507-31146      01/01/2016-01/31/2023       PCORI
Pragmatic Trial Comparing Telehealth Care and Clinic-based Care for Uncontrolled High Blood Pressure (Hyperlink-3) (Margolis)
This pragmatic trial will be implemented in 20 HealthPartners clinics with little to no support from the grant (to show that it is feasible for health systems to implement and sustain). Clinic staff will recruit patients. Clinicians will need to be trained on the study protocols. The telehealth intervention will be supported by HealthPartners MTM pharmacists and nurse practitioners who will provide support over the phone.  Role: Principal Investigator

06/01/2020-06/30/2024        MDH/CDC
EHR Based Syndromic Surveillance for COVID (Winkelman)
Collaboration across MN health systems who use Epic to share data for research purposes.  Role: Site Principal Investigator 

11/01/2021-5/31/2023      MDH/CDC
Minnesota EHR Consortium OMOP (Winkleman)
Collaboration across MN health systems to build a common data model.  Role: Site Principal Investigator

UG3-HL-155801      9/17/2021-8/31/2026        NHLBI
Long-term Effectiveness of the Anti-obesity medication Phentermine (LEAP)
Multicenter randomized clinical trial comparing long-term online lifestyle intervention and either phentermine 24 mg/day or matching placebo for 24 months. The co-primary outcomes are percent weight loss and change in systolic BP at 24 months.  Role: Co-investigator

Dr. Margolis is an internal medicine physician and researcher. Throughout her career she has been drawn to topics that arose from unanswered questions in her practice. This has led Dr. Margolis to research a broad range of issues: safety and acceptability of flu shots, screening for breast and cervical cancer, preventing falls and fractures in older women, safety and effectiveness of postmenopausal hormone therapy, and treatments for diabetes. A central theme has been how best to prevent cardiovascular disease, especially through effective treatment of high blood pressure, across the age spectrum in both men and women. The COVID-19 pandemic led Dr. Margolis back to vaccine research, and she is especially proud to be collaborating with researchers across Minnesota to improve health outcomes related to this and other public health threats.

Education and training include:
University of Michigan (B.S. in Biology, 1979), Phi Beta Kappa
Universi